As people drive by the rapidly-growing Oregon State University-Cascades campus on Century Drive, the dust flies from construction where the student success center is taking shape. A bustling college campus replaced what once was a pumice mine and a construction landfill along Century Drive.

The vision of community leaders 24 years ago, to create educational opportunities in Central Oregon in order to keep talent local and draw more students to the region, continues to evolve.

“We’ve set out to build a campus that was engaged with the community,” said Sherm Bloomer, chancellor and dean for the university branch campus.

K-12 school districts have had a different type of evolution. In the year 2000, districts in Central Oregon were experiencing a boom in student enrollment, passing bond measures and building new schools. But a pandemic, gentrification and mental health have shaped change and altered anticipated enrollment growth.

Now, some Central Oregon school districts have had to slash their budgets, and a few are looking at declining or stagnant student enrollment. Old school buildings are in need of repairs, though new construction projects abound throughout the region. Students require more social-emotional supports, such as mental health counselors, which have been added over the past few years to help them.

Voters say no to Bend-La Pine Schools levy

“More and more expectations get put on schools by society,” said Redmond School District Superintendent Charan Cline. “The expectations of schools has changed, but not necessarily how we fund them or how we manage them or the kind of people we have working in them.”

More students, more options, same feeling

Matthew Pierce, who graduated from Bend High School in 1998, returned several years ago to run the choral ensembles at Bend High and Pilot Butte Middle School.

“The funny thing about Bend High is that, now that we’re doing all of the construction and everything, there’s going to be a lot of changes, but as far as the feel of the school, it feels pretty similar to the way it did,” said Pierce.

There are more electives and project opportunities than there were when he was a student. His class didn’t have career technical education courses, but he remembered there was an auto shop class for a while. The available electives he remembers were foreign language, music and art.

When at Bend High, Pierce was involved with his church, music and theater.

“I was mostly there to do the music thing and hang out with my friends,” he said. “There weren’t as many clubs or anything either; you did the arts or you did sports.”

Pierce went into teaching because he wanted to be like his own inspiring teachers.

“It feels right to me to be there. It feels very much like coming home, in a nice way,” he said of returning. “Part of that is because when I was a student I knew I wanted to do something musical.”

The memories that came to mind for Pierce are ones he still uses as teaching examples. He recalled a vocal director asking a student to painstakingly untangle a badly wrapped mic cable, and thus reminded the class how to do it correctly.

“Lots of little memories like that, of teaching things and stuff that goes on. But mostly I remember the feeling of being there, the feeling of knowing that place and the people in it, and having teachers that would look out for me and challenge me,” he said. “That feeling hasn’t changed, in a wonderful way.”

Budget cuts and lower enrollment

Deschutes County’s population was about 115,000 in 2000. Today, it’s around 212,000, and expected to keep growing. That growth is not mirrored in Bend-La Pine Schools’ enrollment numbers over the past 24 years.

While the growth in Deschutes County almost doubled, the district grew by about 40%, and Oregon’s fifth-largest district has experienced declining numbers since 2019. The district’s peak enrollment was 18,672, in October 2019, and the district had 17,075 students last October, according to the Oregon Department of Education.

Student absenteeism during the pandemic and the rise of homeschooling and private schooling may help explain slower growth. Birthrates have dropped in recent years, and people moving to the area are older and don’t have children, according to the Portland State University Population Research Center. And Bend-La Pine Schools isn’t the only district experiencing the drop.

This year is Lisa Birk’s 18th year working for the Bend-La Pine district. Before her current role of deputy superintendent, she worked in various roles, including as principal at two different schools.

Bend-La Pine Schools has recently focused on expanding its early literacy curriculum and a program for life and career readiness, or learning to socialize with others and advocate for yourself. The district began its dual-immersion program 14 years ago, which expanded slowly year over year and is now in every grade.

“That’s just such an amazing gift to give students language, and an amazing career opportunity,” said Birk, who used to be principal of Bear Creek Elementary, which hosts the program. “We are one of very few (districts) that have a K-12 program.”

Bend-La Pine Schools has built 10 schools since 2000, seven of which are elementary schools. Summit High was built in 2002, and Caldera High was built in 2021. Bond measures over the years have helped pay for the builds, and ensure schools are maintained.

Enrollment dropping in Bend-La Pine Schools 

Funding remains a challenge for the district, as does the high volume of student mental health needs, which mainly grew out of the pandemic.

“I think if we were having this conversation 10 years ago, we didn’t notice the acuteness of trauma in the same way as we experience that now,” Birk said.

The district has expanded career technical education programs over the past few decades, ensuring students are focused on a career pathway. Technology use has expanded, with the iPad pilot beginning in 2013. The district is now beginning to reevaluate student use of technology. This year and for at least the next four years, the district will offer free breakfast and lunch at all schools.

“What we know is we serve a huge diversity of students … it is important to recognize how students access and feel connected and comfortable and that they are able to belong in spaces that have traditionally maybe not lined up for them so well,” said Birk. “That’s a discussion that many years ago we weren’t having the same way.”

Maintaining current buildings

Cline became superintendent of the Redmond School District in 2020, and said the ensuing 18 months during the pandemic were “chaos” and coming out of it allowed the district to retool some programs.

The online schooling program, called RSDFlex, which began in 2013, has expanded over the past few years and served approximately 300 students last year, said Cline. Credit recovery programs can now be completed using the same online program.

Ridgeview High’s culinary program has expanded to include a catering program, which provides a space for students to apply what they learn. The manufacturing program at Redmond High is performing contract work for the U.S. Navy and NASA, said Cline.

The district’s enrollment has been stagnant for the past few years, though it has grown by over 2,000 students since 2000. This year, it has approximately 80 more students than expected, said Cline.

The district built 12 classrooms in schools over the last few years using funding from the 2020 bond. In part due to student demographics, the district also briefly considered converging the two high schools so Redmond High School could be repaired, but ultimately chose not to move forward.

“Everyone always thinks, the amount of people you’ve got in your area is huge,” said Cline. “You can see, through all this (population) growth…really not an increase in the amount of students.”

Ridgeview High School opened in 2012, and the high school section of Redmond Proficiency Academy opened in 2010, meaning there were suddenly three options for high schoolers when before there had only been Redmond High. One elementary and one middle school opened in 2006, with another elementary following in 2010. Redmond Proficiency’s middle school section opened in 2012.

“Redmond High was packed,” said Cline of the years before the other two high schools opened. “When they decided to split the two schools, they did that but they also expected the kind of growth they were getting to continue. Nobody perceived the birthrates would drop how they have. Nobody understood that a great recession was coming and it was going to change how development was happening in Central Oregon.”

Cline emphasized that the district is currently looking to repair its current buildings and isn’t planning to build new schools. The November 2024 bond is for repairs and renovations, especially to Redmond High’s ventilation and air conditioning system, which is 50 years old.

“What we’re doing is refurbishing the buildings we’ve got, making sure they’re in good shape for the next 20 years,” he said. “The structures still need reinvestment.”

Expanding programs for students

Curt Scholl, who is starting his 10th year as Sisters School District superintendent, said the challenges when he started are fairly similar to the problems Sisters schools are facing today.

“It’s trying to look at the challenges of the students who’ve come in and meet those challenges so they can access their education,” said Scholl. “It’s the same issue, just different variables, different impacts.”

Scholl has seen students experience learning loss, as well as students with behavior issues, as a result of the pandemic. Ten years ago, the district had issues with trying to find enough bus drivers, which Scholl doesn’t think has changed. There are always challenges with making sure the district has enough staff, because it’s expensive to live in Central Oregon, he said.

Sisters School District focuses on place-based learning, and many of its more unique programs are paid for by the local option levy which will be up for renewal in 2028. The district has expanded its flight science program, and its luthier, snowboarding and ski woodworking programs received new equipment last year.

“We’re primed for growth and long-term success with our facilities and where we are right now,” Scholl said.

Sisters School District opened a new elementary school this year, which serves kindergarten through fifth grade. When Scholl started in 2015, there were around 300 students at the elementary level and this year there are around 500.

Higher education looks to the future

Laurie Chesley, president of Central Oregon Community College, said the past few years of declining student enrollment is beginning to turn around.

“We’re really focused on, even if we have fewer students, how do we make their experience better?” said Chesley. “In terms of quality initiatives to support those students, strengthening programs, I think the trend has been really strong and really positive.”

The college’s Madras campus is currently constructing another building so its health careers and early childhood education programs can add more students.

Chesley’s focus is on providing access to those who want to attend COCC, though she is wondering how higher education will respond to the national conversation that asks whether people need college degrees to pursue their goals.

Oregon State University-Cascades’ presence started in fall 2001 when the university offered classes on COCC’s Bend campus.

The branch university opened its own campus in 2016 and is currently in the middle of a vast project to remediate the pumice mine and construction landfill that is on university land. The student success center, currently under construction, will open in January. The next phase of campus development will cost $84 million and prepare land for the health and recreation center and sports fields.

The university has partnered with the Central Oregon community for several programs, including for student workers at clinics in the region for the doctor of physical therapy program and in the creation of Snowplanks Academy, when Snowplanks, a Bend company, was donated to the campus last year.

“It has really become a thriving campus,” said Bloomer, chancellor and dean for the university branch campus. “Regional access still matters a lot; students are still coming from the three-county area. We want to get as many students as we can accessing higher education.”

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected. The original version misstated the name of Redmond Proficiency Academy. The Bulletin regrets the error. 

Central Oregon Growth: a yearlong series

The Bulletin’s yearlong series is focused on the impacts and solutions related to growth in Central Oregon.

We’re comparing how civic groups, government officials and local leaders addressed growth 20 to 25 years ago to today, with a focus on four areas — environment, infrastructure, economics and housing. Bulletin reporters will examine the success of previous solutions, current approaches to growth issues.

Read the full collection of The Bulletin’s Central Oregon Growth Series